Digesting-disintegrator.



No. 889,241. PATENTED JUNE 2, 1908.

ML R. KENNEDY.

DIGESTING DISINTEGRATOR.

APPLICATION FILED 00.153, 1906.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

MICHAEL R. KENNEDY, OF DANSVILLE, NEW YORK, ASSIGNOR TO THE NATIONAL STRAW PULP COMPANY, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., A CORPORATION OF SOUTH DAKOTA.

DIGESTING-DIS INTEGRA'IOR.

Specification of Letters Patent.

7 Patented June 2, 1908.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, MICHAEL R. KENNEDY,

a citizen of the United States, residing at Dansville, county of Livingston, and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Digesting-Disintegrators, fully described and represented in the following specification and the accompanying drawings, forming a part of the same.

The presentinvention relates to a digester adapted to the treatment of straw, wood chips, rags, and analogous substances, to extract the fiber from the same for use in making paper, pasteboard, &c., and I have termed the invention a digesting disintegrator, because I provide in the receptacle for such materials, means for mechanically stirring and agitating the materials so as to disintegrate the tissues by attrition of the particles against one another and against the Walls of the digester.

The invention comprises a stationary receptacle with means for heating the walls of the same, means for spraying steam, hot air, or liquor within the top of the receptacle, a double bottom for the receptacle with perforations in its upper side, and outlet and inlet pipes from the space between the bottoms to draw liquor from or supply it thereto; a shaft extended through the receptacle with paddles or stirring arms for agitating the material, the shaft and arms or paddles being preferably hollow, and the paddles perforated so that any fluid may be supplied to the shaft and diffused from the paddles into the contents of the receptacle while stirring the same. The receptacle is preferably jacketed at the sides, and gas jets projected into the jacket with air to furnish combustion, so that the wall of the receptacle may be readily maintained at any desired temperature.

A perforated jet pipe bent in annular form is arranged in the top of the disintegrator and provided with connections by which hot air, steam, water or chemicals may be sprayed upon the contents of the disintegrator, and as the ring-shape of this perforated pipe permits the cut straw to pass through the pipe when poured into the digester, such annular jet pipe furnishes a means of moistening the straw as it is fed into the digester, and thus saves much of the time in mixing the straw with the chemicals and difinses the fluid through the straw in a most effective manner. A pipe is also in serted through the wall-of the digester to supply steam, hot air, or other fluids irre spective of the perforated pipe.

The bottom of the digester is hinged so as to discharge the contents downwardly, and is made with an interior chamber, to which pipe connections are made for supplying fluid to or drawing it from the chamber, the upper side of the chamber being perforated to form a screen and support the contents of the digester while fluids are injected or withdrawn from the same. By means of this construction, the straw may be stirred while any fluid is diffused through its mass by the rotating paddles, and any desired fluid may be introduced upon thesurface of the mass, or below the bottom of the same through the screen in the double bottom. While the straw is undergoing chemical treatment by the liquor supplied thereto, it is also undergoing a mechanical disintegration by the action of the rotating paddles, and the friction of the material with its own particles and the sides of the digester.

When the chemical treatment is completed, the chemical liquor may be withdrawn through the perforated bottom, and washing water introduced by the same means, to flow upwardly through the mass while agitated by the paddles, so as to eifectually wash the liquor from the material. The washing water may then be withdrawn through the screen of the double bottom, and the material discharged for further treatment, with or without the admixture of a chemical, which may readily be mingled with the material by the paddles, if desired, before the material is discharged.

Owing to the double functions of this apparatus, I have in the claims termed it a digesting disintegrator, as it operates as a digester through the action of the chemicals and heat which are su plied, and o crates as a disinteigrator by t e mechanica action of the padd es.

In the drawing, Figure 1 isa vertical section of the apparatus, and Fig. 2 is aside elevation of the same upon a smaller scale.

a designates the inner shell or wall of the receptacle, which, for brevity, I will term the digester." b is a jacket surrounding the same with space 0 between the two having various inlets (1 into which gas jets e are projected. The jacket is surrounded by a non-conducting casing f, and outlet flues f are extended from the top of the space 0. A removable cover 9 is shown with safety-valve g thereon, to limit the pressure. The bottom is shown formed with space it having a perforated plate or screen it upon the upper side and a solid plate k u on the lower side, all connected with a ring having a hinge i to joint it with the digester. The plate 71 is arched upwardly in the center, and a pipe is connected with such ortion, while pipes k and 1: connect with tl ie margin of the interspace it which is lower than the middle portion, so as to drain the liquor therefrom.

Bearings Z are secured upon the sides of the shell a, and a hollow shaft Z extended across the body of the rece tacle, with stuffingboxes l u on the shell to prevent leakage. One end 0 the shaft is plugged, and a gear m secured thereon for rotating the shaft by suitable connections, and the opposite or open end of the shaft is extended through a stuffing-box m into a chamber m*, which may be supplied with fluid of any kind, as hot air, steam, water or chemicals, through a pipe 0, which has various branches 0 connected thereto and en plied with cocks, to connect the pipe 0 wit any source of fluid supply. An annular spray-pipe p is shown extended beneath the cover g, with a manhole g in the cover adapted to admit the material through the middle of the annular s ray-pipe.

It will be understood that the digester would, for paper manufacture, be made of several tons capacity, and that the material may be fed into the receptacle in any suitable manner.

The pipes 7c, is and which connect with the space h inside the double bottom, are 1provided with cocks and have detachable ose connections 8, 8, 8 which can be removed, when the bottom is opened upon its hinge t to discharge the contents of the digester.

With the detachments described, the apparatus is adapted for use in many processes connected with the extraction of fiber as digesting, washing, bleaching, &c., the combination of chemical treatment with mechanical agitation producing results which cannot be produced by either alone. For example, in the treatment of a batch of cut straw, a portion of the re, uired chemical is sprayed u on the materia from thespraypipe 1) as t e material is fed through the pipe into the digester, the walls of which have been heated by the gas jets e. The cover being closed, the mechanical agitation of the material is effected by first rotating the hollowshaft Z at a slow speed, injecting steam or hot liquor from the paddles n into the material until the temperature is slowly raised to the boiling point; the mechanical agitation is then increased by increasing the speed of the shaft Z, thus intimately mixing the liquor and the straw, so that all the parts of the material may be intimately treated or attacked by the solution, the motion also rubbing the particles of the material against 70 one another and against the walls of the vessel. Such treatment renders the silica and other extraneous matters solid, and softens the gum in the knots of the straw, thus disintegrating the portions of the material which are more tractable. At the close of this stage in the treatment, the pipe is is opened and the liquor with the dissolved silica is drained off through the false bottom it, steam or air under a low pressure being introduced through a pipe 1" to hasten the process by surface pressure. The pipe 7c being closed, water is introduced through the pi e k and is forced up through the perforate bottom H, thus diffusing it through all of the material, the washing water being used in sufficient quantity to float the entire mass of material and to cleanse it thoroughly. The washing water is withdrawn in the same manner as described for the chemical liquor, and when the washing process is completed, the material is in readiness for treatment at high temperature and pressure in a globular cooker adapted to stand such pressure.

Having thus set forth the nature of the invention what is claimed herein is:

1. A digesting disintegrator having the walls jacketed, and gas jets rojected into the acket to heat the said wa Is.

2. A digesting disintegrator having the 100 walls jacketed, vent flues extended from the top of the jacket, inlet apertures at different levels upon the jacket, and gas jets rojected into such inlets to heat the wal of the jacket. 105

3. A digesting disintegrator having the walls jacketed, and gas jets rojected into the jacket to heat the said We ls, and a nonconducting casing applied to the jacket to retain the heat therein.

4. A digesting disintegrator adapted for chemical and mechanical treatment of vegetable tissues, consisting of a receptacle provided with means for supplying chemical liquor to the contents, a hollow shaft extended 115 into the disintegrator with hollow perforated paddles thereon, and means for supplying a uid, as steam or liquor, to the interior of the shaft, to be diflused from the paddles during the agitation of the material.

5. A digesting disintegrator adapted for chemical and mechanical treatment of vegetable tissues, consisting of a receptacle having a shaft with paddles for agitating the contents, a tightly fitting double bottom 1 with interior space it having the screen it upon the upper side and the solid plate 7L2 u on the lower side, the plates being connect e by a ring h having a hinge i, and a joint for such hinge upon the digester.

6. A digesting disintegrator adapted for with detachable fluid connections to be rechemical and mechanical treatment of vege moved when the bottom is opened. table tissues, consisting of areceptacle having In testimony whereof I have hereunto set ashaftwithpaddlesfor agitatingthe contents, my hand in the presence of two subscribing 5 a tightly fitting double bottom with interior witnesses.

space h having the screen it upon the upper side and the solid plate It upon the lower MICHAEL KENNEDY side, a hinge for connecting the hollow bot- Witnesses:

tom to the digester, and inlet and outlet l PARLEY M. HAMMOND, 10 pipes connected to the space h and provided DAISON D. PURRINGTON. 

